This invention relates in general to an actuator for actuating the dispensing valve in a pressurized container and more particularly to a manual actuating lever for use with a tilt valve and dispensing nozzle.
Tilt valves for pressurized containers are used to dispense a variety of products such as shaving cream, cheese products and wiped cream. Valve assemblies of such containers are describe in U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,813; U.S. Pat. No. 2,965,270; U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,610; U.S. Pat. No. 2,914,224 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,808,806.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,103 issued on Jan. 22, 2002 describes a hand operated lever arrangement for moving a valve and associated nozzle in a vertical or axial direction to dispense pressurized product from the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,301 issued Jul. 28, 1998 describes a tilt action valve assembly in which the seal between the valve and the container includes a thin wall boot portion that bows to accommodate stem movement. As certain of these known tilt action valve arrangements, the operator presses the nozzle which fits over the valve in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the nozzle to cause an arcuate movement that causes the tilting of the bottom portion of the valve into the container thereby exposing one or more valve openings to the pressurized product so that the pressurized product is forced through the valve stem to be used by the operator.
For many products, particularly those that are packaged under high pressure and are highly viscous, there is appreciable resistance of this tiling action. It can be either tiring or difficult to maintain at a predetermined tilt level so as to control the rate at which product is dispensed.
It is known to provide levers or mechanisms which are applied to the nozzle to provide a mechanical advantage in tilting the nozzle on the valve stem on which the nozzle is mounted.
However, such handles or levers can readily be displaced and hard to locate or provide a bulky addition to the can.
If mounted with the container when the container is sold, they have to be kept from accidentally actuating the nozzle and valve. This typically causes the need for substantial additional packaging.
Accordingly, it is a major purpose of this invention to provide a manually operated lever as part of the actuator of the valve used in a pressurized container.
A related purpose of this invention is to provide this lever in a compact fashion that minimizes additional packaging bulk.
A further related purpose of this invention is to provide the above purposes with a lever design which will not accidentally or unintentionally cause valve actuation during packaging or shipping or storing of the product.